View this post on the web at [link removed]
America’s national debt surpassed $37 trillion on August 11, 2025. At that scale, traditional solutions, higher taxes, spending cuts, or expanded borrowing, have become politically difficult and economically risky.
Two ideas illustrate this shift. One is the trillion-dollar platinum coin, a proposal that surfaced during past debt-ceiling crises. The other is the regulation of dollar-backed stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, which is now active law.
These approaches differ in form and timing, but they share a common logic. Both rely on monetary mechanisms rather than new borrowing, using existing legal authority to generate liquidity.
Together, they show how U.S. debt management has quietly adapted under political and market pressure.
The Platinum Coin Proposal
The platinum coin proposal emerged during the debt-ceiling standoffs between 2011 and 2013, when Congress risked blocking payments on existing obligations.
The idea rests on a narrow provision of federal law. Under 31 U.S.C. § 5112(k), the Treasury Secretary has the authority to mint platinum coins of any denomination.
In theory, Treasury could mint a single platinum coin with a face value of $37 trillion.
The coin itself would be ordinary in size and material cost. Its value would not come from its metal, but from its legal designation. Treasury would deposit the coin at the Federal Reserve, which would then credit Treasury’s account for the full-face value.
That accounting difference between production cost and stated value is known as seigniorage.
With that credit in place, Treasury could pay maturing bonds and bills as they come due. No new debt would be issued. The statutory debt ceiling would remain unchanged. Bondholders would receive full principal and interest under existing contracts.
In short, default would be avoided without additional borrowing.
This logic has historical precedent. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, requiring Americans to surrender gold at $21 per ounce. Soon after, the government revalued gold to $35 per ounce.
That move sharply devalued the dollar and reduced the real burden of outstanding debts.
Supporters of the platinum coin saw it as a lawful response to political paralysis. It turned routine minting authority into a fiscal backstop. Critics, however, warned of inflation risks and institutional damage, arguing it resembled unchecked money creation.
In the end, the coin was never minted. It remained a theoretical tool rather than enacted policy.
The platinum coin was never minted. But a very similar mechanism is now operating in real time, not as theory, but as law.
What follows explains how dollar-backed stablecoins quietly channel global demand into U.S. debt markets, and why this matters far more than most people realize...
Unsubscribe [link removed]?
